Property rights in a pond

[livemusic]

I have a tract of 18 acres. The upper end of an 8-acre pond crosses my tract, about three acres on me. So, the owner where the man-made dam is owns the majority. Do I have the right to fish the entire pond? Actually, there is the next landowner to me who has a fractional acre (not much) of the pond on him. Curious as to what rights one has.

EDIT:  Hmmm... I don't even think the dam is on the guy with the majority of the pond. Looks like the dam actually is on the next landowner to him! (And this particular landowner has no water frontage.) Pond was built several decades ago; probably was owned by one landowner at that time, a relative to me.

[Walnut Beast]

I would say no unless there is some easement. Also whoever built the pond could have a legal claim. If it crosses on yours and was never acknowledged and the previous owner let it happen and did nothing

[reride82]

I would say no, unless there is an easement as previously stated. Is it all part of the same subdivision, and is there an HOA? Also, what kind of stream is the pond/reservoir on? If it is considered navigable, then the whole thing could be considered a state right-of-way depending on the State.

Levi

[Walnut Beast]

Don't ever let anyone plant, use or build on your land with your knowledge. After a certain length of time they could lay claim to it. Don't think it happens! Think again 

[Walnut Beast]

Absolutely right on the navigable part Levi

[Walnut Beast]

A property I was looking at getting had two miles of the niobrara river running through it and it was navigable so no stopping people in rafts 

[Southside]

Pond rules and riparian rights vary by State so you have to check laws there.  For example the Great Ponds act in Maine allows public access to any body of water over 10 acres up to the high water mark, it even allow access to creeks and such on private property, posted or not does not matter, as long as the person accessing the creek does not touch the ground under the creek.  So you can row your canoe up stream, but not pole it in that scenario and be legal.  

Here in Virginia I believe it comes down to how the deed is written as to if you have riparian access or not even if you have frontage.  So, need to check your laws.  

[livemusic]

I dunno if it matters, probably doesn't but I bought my tract a few years ago from a cousin who bought it from our great uncle who bought it from... somebody else... another relative. I think my dad's first cousin probably built this pond but I don't think he owned all of of these tracts; I think he and other relatives owned various tracts. They probably just agreed to let him build the pond and all would benefit. I am not aware of any easement. All of this land originally belonged to my great grandpa. Pretty much everybody is dead now who is older than me.

The creek is not navigable.

The man who owns the land where the bulk of the pond lies is not a relative but I have spoken to him. He hit me up to go in with him to drain and rebuild the pond. And let me fish all of it. I dunno if it's worth the expense to me, not sure. But I'd consider it. It would probably cost quite a bit! Now if I want to spend some serious coin, I could probably get a nice pond out of it. But I would have to clear a bazillion trees in the upper end, which is shallow, and deepen my end of the pond. In the hot summer, my end gets unusably shallow, like just a foot or two deep. Or less. Or dry. Good news is that pond does have that creek which has a bit of a spring seepage to it year-long.

I have long wondered about this "pond usage" question. I guess you have the right to fish only what is on you? Assuming there is no easement?

[Walnut Beast]

Another little story😂. I guy I knew out in western Nebraska that was a big time business owner had to get his Bulldozer in action and call the sheriff. Big time rancher had his crew building a cattle fence through a portion of his ranch. He wasn't letting it happen. It happens. Especially to widows that lose there husbands and don't know any better. 

[dgdrls]

What does your deed say, survey map/plat?

FWIW, you mentioned a dam,  whats below it and what condition is that in?
Until you know that I wouldn't get involved with any maintenance or repairs

D

[Logger RK]

Where I'm from,navigable means if it has bed & banks. Even if just a rubber ducky would float down,not a 12 foot conoe as some thought.

[Walnut Beast]

Try trespassing on someone's place with the rubber duck theory of navigable. I don't think it would hold up in court anywhere 😂

[Riwaka]

How well do the digital cadastral maps match the paper survey plans in the area?

The modern people have sometimes just made a mess of the current digital maps when interpreting the paper plans or updating an older imprecise digital map.etc

[YellowHammer]

Do I have the right to fish the entire pond? 

For me, it would depend on how big the fish were! :D

[moodnacreek]

Do I have the right to fish the entire pond?

For me, it would depend on how big the fish were! :D

And if they hit at night.

[Walnut Beast]

Let's just go fishing 🎣. Now what are you going to do if you don't help pay for the pond restoration and the neighbor goes ahead with it. And says it's all his 😂

[Banjo picker]

There is a good sized lake to my south.  Woodall mt estates.  Nice houses built around it.  Man that first built it call me to see about doing some repairs to the *DanG.  It's concrete.  I did concrete work at the time.  I turned him down.  If that *DanG washes out there will be a mess to deal with downstream.  I didn't want to be possibly connected to it.  You might want to think about repercussions if that happens.  Tim

[YellowHammer]

Do I have the right to fish the entire pond?

For me, it would depend on how big the fish were! :D

And if they hit at night.

Oh, that brings back fond memories of my earlier pond sneaking adventures where I had the right to fish anywhere...
  
My personal favorite phases based in years of pond sneaking:
"Did you bring the chainsaw?  The farmer felled some trees down to block the road. It won't take but a few minutes to cut them away."
"I can't see, its too dark, are you sure its this way?"
"Turn that stinking light off!"
"Quit banging the boat, they'll hear us."
"I wish their dog would shut up."
"We're doing fine, keep paddling, I can see them inside watching TV.  They won't see us as we go by."
"Don't step on the beaver dam, there's snakes in there."
"The gators won't bite if we keep moving."
"DanG, thats a BIG fish, yeah."
and my favorite, and asked every trip:
"Do you think they'll shoot us?"

[Southside]

Oh more than a few worms drowned during some of my early excursions into such trout ponds under the same conditions.  

[SFires]

Not sure if its changed or not but when I was a teen Oklahoma law was as long as you had some form of legal access to waters edge like owning a small strip of land that runs to shoreline then you had legal rights to all water as long as you where afloat. Could float tube or boat all you wanted but couldn't walk around the edge. There was several ponds that would back water up to the roadway deep enough we could but in our tubes and fish that way. 

[livemusic]

Not sure if its changed or not but when I was a teen Oklahoma law was as long as you had some form of legal access to waters edge like owning a small strip of land that runs to shoreline then you had legal rights to all water as long as you where afloat. Could float tube or boat all you wanted but couldn't walk around the edge. There was several ponds that would back water up to the roadway deep enough we could but in our tubes and fish that way.

That's the way I recall it being here and the reason for the thread, but I do not know if this is/was correct. Might've been just wishful-thinking lore.

[Walnut Beast]

Put your big boy pants  on and get in your raft and go over on his side and tell him from the raft you got every right to be on his side and see what he says or does 😂😂

[emclNH]

As many people have pointed out, the answer to whether you can publicly access water depends on the state.  Here in New Hampshire, any pond (natural or manmade) is publicly accessible if it is 10 acres or larger.  This size also seems to be a pretty common standard, at least in the New England states.  In your case, since the pond is only 8 acres, I would say that you have rights to the section that is on your property.  Like a lot of people have said, though, is the other owner really going to have a problem if you pull a bass out on his portion?  If you are really worried, or interested, then I would do a quick Google search on Louisiana water access laws.  Louisiana is actually a special case, too, because your legal system is partially based on the old French civil law.  I don't know what effect this will have.

[LogPup]

Don't know if this helps.  It has some info and codes you could lookup.  http://www.dnr.louisiana.gov/assets/Legal/PRATF/C5AttC20181029.pdf

David